


Love, Sex, and Romance away from the Prying Eyes of the Untheileneise Court

by Oshun



Series: Diamond in the Rough [3]
Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 12:51:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17044085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oshun/pseuds/Oshun
Summary: A summer vacation away from the Untheileneise Court gives Maia and Csevet a chance to learn some unexpected lessons and learn to hope for a future they had not dreamed of discovering.





	Love, Sex, and Romance away from the Prying Eyes of the Untheileneise Court

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Orockthro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orockthro/gifts).



During that first winter of Maia’s reign, Csevet frequently noted that there was something unique—tense yet thrilling—about being part of a court where the governmental apparatus has suddenly been aged-down. No one could have imagined such a dramatic break in the line of succession as that which resulted from the crash of the airship Wisdom of Choharo. The familiar had unexpectedly and irrevocably shattered in a way that no one alive could have imagined. The rules of the courtly game had changed to the surprise of both the old regime and the fragile new order. The country had lost not only an Emperor, scarcely past his prime and still powerful, with many years, perhaps decades, in front of him, but also his three eldest sons. A significant part of his closest administrative staff had perished as well.

Many of the principal players in the new regime, Csevet himself included but most of all the Emperor, were fresh—young, vulnerable, perhaps idealistic, certainly inexperienced, and to greater or lesser degrees more open to change than their predecessors. They represented an impressionable generation emerging during a period of rapid technological development and the accompanying falling apart of long-standing institutions. The archaisms of society’s ancient traditions were becoming more starkly obvious. They no longer functioned adequately for a new age of airships and steam-powered industry. Some of this new generation appeared heady with the unexpected chance to participate in this change, while many of their elders were understandably fearful.

Others, like Csevet, were shocked to find that there might be a means for them to influence that transformation. In Csevet’s case this unprecedented opportunity had come to him through Maia. He did not deceive himself. He hungered for it. He had never been particularly ambitious before, but he acknowledged that he wanted to be part of this change. Initially, he admitted that he wanted to be close to Maia. He found himself drawn to the new Emperor if truth be told because he was totally infatuated with him. Yet it was Maia’s simple goodness and his anger when faced with injustice that hit Csevet like a dose of tonic, revitalizing him and giving him hope in the future.

Both those highly born like Maia but not expecting to inherit and those of unique talents and ability coming from backgrounds which in the past would have locked them into subsidiary roles found themselves suddenly able to act. There was a sense of the inevitable about many of the changes in the beginning. While some individuals responded out of altruism and idealism, others acted in their own interest when faced with the sudden openings. 

Many were moved to experiment largely because they found themselves in an advantageous place, at the right time. The old ways of doing things had not had the opportunity to harden around them like rust long-encasing a once flexible moving part. If anyone had told Csevet six months earlier that he would soon be working in such an exalted post as that of administrative secretary to a green new Emperor, he doubtless would have thought them mad.

So, that first six months of the reign of Edrehasivar VII saw a sea change in the life of Csevet as well as in the direction of the empire. The changes although profound were not all invented by the new emperor. One of the first and most profound had been Maia’s father Varenechibel IV's dream to finally unite the areas of the country separated by the mighty Istandaärtha River by building a steam-powered retractable bridge. It was less that Varenechibel IV had been a monster and more than he clung to certain worn-out prejudices and injustices when the only way forward in a changing world was to cast them aside. It took the ascension of Maia for this to happen.

Young women like Dach’osmin Csethiro Ceredin, Maia’s betrothed, and Archduchess Vedero Drazhin, the young Emperor’s oldest half-sister, were more than ready to assume changed roles in this brand new world. Maia seemed in no rush to marry, nor did his bride-to-be Csethiro, but as time passed they became closer and spent more time together.

Csethiro had taught Maia to dance. And most recently she, herself an accomplished practitioner of the traditional skills of swordsmanship, had been teaching him fencing. As he gained self-assurance in his role as sovereign, he mastered competency in a whole series of other areas of knowledge and skills which were entirely new to him.

Unlike the rest of the nobility, there had been no hunting, riding, or instructions in sword fighting in Maia’s youth. Maia was proficient, if not an artist, in calligraphy. He had used the opportunity of his isolation and the humble library of Edonomee to acquire what had begun to be viewed in court over recent months as a modest reputation for erudition. Maia had used what had been available to him for entertainment and profited thereby. Furthermore, before her death, the Princess Chenelo had taught her young son the rudiments of theology and devotion. He was neither a scholar nor a mystic but far from the least literate among Emperors. What he lacked in breadth due to the scarcity of manuscripts and instruction, he made up for in depth as a result of the hours and hours he spent alone reading and re-reading all of the available material.

Winter faded into a late and chilly spring, but finally, when summer appeared to be imminent, Csevet mentioned to Maia that it was customary for the Emperor to spend at least two months away from the Untheileneise Court. The Emperor’s summer holidays constituted less than an escape from duties, although they did provide that in part, but fulfilled a traditional expectation. The role of Emperor, its lack of privacy or free time, meant the annual escape was considered a necessity of survival.

Apparently, there were various choices of properties—the old debate of mountains, seashore, or countryside amongst Maia’s wealthiest and most privileged subjects must be considered from a royal perspective as well. It was the Archduchess Vedero who came up with the suggestion of one of the imperial estates which was called the Children’s Palace. It was located a days’ journey by carriage from the capital to a verdant river valley. She told them that her mother and father had brought her there every summer of her early childhood, when they were still young and in love, until the year her mother had unexpectedly died.

Vedero had pronounced, in those ringing, urgent tones unique to her, that it was terribly unfair that Maia had never seen the impressive manor house and its extensive grounds. She underlined how it was doubly unjust that his nephew Prince Idra and his younger sisters, Ino and Mireän, had never spent a single holiday there despite having been raised such an easy trip away. Her father had eventually settled the worst of his anger at the tragic shambles of whatever he, as Emperor of the Elflands, might have wished to call a personal life. But, Varenechibel never recovered enough from his grief at the loss of the one wife he had truly loved to bring his younger children or grandchildren to spend holidays at the Children’s Palace where he and his Empress Verdero’s mother had spent their happiest days.

When Vedero insisted that Maia his royal nieces and nephew should spend the coming summer retreat there, Csethiro, Csevet, and Maia had adopted her plan with alacrity. The four of them, without the children, made a one-day tour of inspection of the estate during the late-spring.

Maia fell in love with its lake, its sloping lawns, its flower gardens containing a small wooded copse and a creek with a picturesque arched bridge. A moss-covered folly, perfect for childish romps, was reminiscent of a wing of an ancient crumbling castle. There was a white-washed wooden gazebo, resting atop a small hillock, which Maia had told Csevet that he thought would be perfect for the young duchesses’ favorite afternoon tea parties of frosted cakes with creamy fillings. His shy smile and sidelong glance at Csevet told him that he could already imagine it echoing with the sound of the girls’ happy prattling voices. They had taken to Maia at first meeting and he shared their affection. He cherished his closeness to the remaining children of the Drazhada like a surprise gift he had not known he wanted.

For more adult pleasures, the large palace with its floor-to-ceiling windows and sunlight-flooded rooms promised the luxurious comfort of the Alcethmeret without any of the forbidding formality of the imperial residential wing in the Untheileneise Court. Csevet deduced that it must have felt to Maia at first sight as bright and cheery on the day they visited as the Alcethmeret had seemed cold and formal to the young man newly arrived from the damp, foggy marches of his exile. Maia viewed it wide-eyed as though it were a magical palace out of a wonder-tale. Csevet instantly realized in a moment of heart-clenching empathy, viewing it through the eyes of the child Maia had been, who had experienced far too few days of warmth and blue skies and none with green lawns and an abundance of sweet-smelling flowers. He already knew he would give his life to protect and defend the life and honor of his Emperor, but that day he realized that he would give all of himself to make Maia happy as well.

Prince Idra had asked a great many questions after their return from that first visit and before they left the capital for the summer. He was anxious to be of use to his “Uncle” Maia, whom he chose to address as Cousin Maia at the emperor’s request. There was still much of the boy in the prince, but within a very short number of years, they would seem to be more contemporaries than uncle and nephew. Prince Idra, with an aspect of great seriousness and mannerisms of studied maturity, asked if he might be allowed to help look after the stables and the boathouse on the river. When Maia agreed without hesitation, Idra grinned ear-to-ear, absolutely bursting with excitement, and crowed, “I promise thee that thou shalt not regret your trust in me. This is going to be the very best summer of our lives!”

And here we all finally are, Csevet thought on the first day of their holiday.

Csethiro, like the Empress Consort she would become in less than a year, took over many of the domestic decisions, leaving Csevet with Maia in his morning room, the name they gave to the office, surrounded by fresh air and informality, to sort through only the most urgent correspondence, dispatching the whole rapidly without the usual interruptions of appointments and urgent visitors. The young girls ran and squealed in their own small world filled with secrets, dreams, and wishes so far from the real-life drama and tragedy of their lives in the Untheileneise Court.

Csevet woke up from his afternoon nap, startling awake as though from a nightmare. He could not find a clock in his room, but he could tell by the hot late afternoon sun flooding through the open floor to ceiling windows, that he was late for tea. He struggled down the path in the direction of the pavilion where they had agreed to meet. Huffing as he traversed the last dip and crest and saw the clever folly sitting atop a small hillock. The two little girls were totally absorbed in rearranging the table settings, giggling and chattering. Afternoon tea was their province. The two young women observed them, grinning at their antics, absorbed as ever in their own private world of friendship or romance--Csevet and Maia had speculated that it could be either or both. Maia had told him he did not mind as long as his future wife was happy, since there was more than enough attraction between the two of them to ensure they could produce an heir. Csevet wondered what Maia really wanted. Csevet stopped for a moment and wondered. Idra and Maia appeared to be engrossed in an earnest discussion.

Then Maia spotted him, calling out to him, “Csevet!” his face breaking into a heart-warming smile.

The emperor continued to grin at him. His expression held such tenderness, covering a visage so handsome, that the combination nearly took Csevet’s breath away. Maia still had a boyish look about him, although he had put on some weight and even a little height since he came to court, still less than a full year ago.

He would grow into his looks within a few short years, Csevet thought; the elegance of Maia’s Elfin features would continue to balance the rugged appeal of his strong Goblin jaw-line and broad shoulders. While his rawboned lankiness would continue to fill out with a regular diet and exercise, no other improvements would be needed to complete his devastating appeal. His dove-grey colored skin, contrasted with his pale wide-set eyes, his aristocratic nose and high cheekbones were softened by his lush full lips. . . . Csevet sighed, thinking that it was painful to think that Maia would be even more attractive in a year or two. Life was so unfair. To be fated to live in such close proximity to the object of his frantic infatuation and yet never be permitted to touch him.

Just that moment Idra looked at him and said in a warm soft voice, “I think we will have time to ourselves this summer.” He glanced first to one side and then the other, acknowledging each of his nohecharei. “I have spoken with my guards and they assure me that we will indeed have more privacy here than we have had at court.”

Suddenly Csevet felt his cheeks begin to burn and a wave of dizziness sweep over him. Could Maia be hinting at something indicating the possibility of greater intimacy between them?


End file.
